h the fair trader; for it is well known, his
credit, his whole subsistence, depends upon keeping his word, and being
strictly punctual in his payments and his promises; and, if he fail in
these, he is undone at once. And how is it possible he should not fail,
if the gentlemen he deals with fail him? He hath no way of raising money
but by sale of his goods; and if those to whom they are trusted will not
pay him, it is impossible he can pay his creditors; and, if he do not
pay them, it is impossible but he must be ruined, and, perhaps, many
more with him. For traders are linked and dependent on one another; and
one man's fall throws down many more with him: the shop-keeper is in
debt to the maker or the merchant; and these again to the journeyman,
the farmer, or the foreign correspondent; and so the ruin becomes
complicated, and extended beyond imagination!"

"Credit is to a tradesman what honour is to a gentleman: to a man that
is truly such, (a gentleman,) his honour is as dear as his life: to the
trader, credit is as life itself; for he cannot live without it."

You, my dear nephew, will never, I trust, stoop so low as to be guilty
of such dishonesty. But then you must keep a vigilant eye upon your
expenses. Paying ready money for every thing may be sometimes
inconvenient, and may, perhaps, occasion mistakes; but never leave
Oxford for a vacation without clearing off every thing that you owe.
Take receipts, and keep them. The most honest and respectable tradesman
may sometimes, in the hurry of business, omit to cross a charge out of
his book, and will feel a satisfaction in having any doubt as to payment
removed. Have such receipts tied up and docketed, so that you may refer
to any one of them readily.

Never suffer yourself to be led into needless expense by the example of
your companions, and never be ashamed of saying that you cannot afford
it.

We sometimes see weak young men vying with each other in the expensive
elegance of their furniture and dress, or in the luxury of their
entertainments. A man of large fortune produces at his table a variety
of costly wines, abundance of ice, and a splendid dessert. Others, from
a silly vanity, affect to do the same, although such expensive luxuries
are altogether inconsistent with their finances, and with the general
habits of men in their rank of life. The more such expenses and foolish
ostentation can be checked by the college _authorities_ the better. At
all events, d